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My tale of woe; partly as a warning to others but also in case anyone has useful advice:

Moved into new house (purchased not rented) 18th feb. House currently supplied by british gas - took meter readings, they matched the sellers and confirmed these with british gas

A week or so after moving in get round to looking at bills etc.- used a price comparison site and selected IRESA on basis of price. direct debit set up.

They took first direct debit payment in March

As time goes on they still hadn't registered us, so couldn't submit meter readings (so still technically with british gas)

Beginning of April IRESA take a 2nd direct debit payment (despite us still being with british gas)

Finally 7th april email from IRESA asking for meter readings as they have now set up our account

I duly tried to submit through their online portal, but this wasn't set up to allow this. I tried phoning and gave up after 20minutes on hold. Finally found an email address and sent the meter readings via email.

Seeveral days later my online account updated with the gas reading but not the electric

I tried phoning and emailing and using their online portal - all without success. I then got a message saying all my issues had been resolved - I checked the website ; nothing resolved!

Due to the poor customer service and being unable to contact them I initiated a transfer to EDF (who I've used before and at least are contactable!). I cancelled my direct debit as I didn;'t want IRESA taking any more of my money (my account in considerably in credit given they have taken 2 monthly direct debits but only been supplying me for a couple of weeks)

received a message from EDF yesterday saying that IRESA have blocked my transfer. Later in the day I received a stock message from IRESA telling me I need to set up a new direct debit with them.

I have again tried to phone (pointless), I've emailed them and written a letter explaining I wish to move, they owe me money (although I will of course pay any amounts due) and that they have no right to block my transfer as my account is in credit.

As always no response from them.

Just to be sure I have spoken with british gas who have confirmed they closed my account with them on 7th april; as far as british gas are concerned IRESA took over both my gas and electric on 7th April.

My IRESA online account is still showing no electricity account and nearly £200 in credit

They seem to have received SOME of the gas ones but the electricity side of things is a mess - they have the opening redaing incorrectly above my current readings so reject my electricity readings - I have phots of the meter so they are wrong but as its impossible to talk to them I cannot get it resolved

So frustrating as I do not want to be there customer but they have trapped me!

I've requested a complaints number - no response

I've requested escalation - no response

Each to their own but I would encourage anyone not to go anywhere near this shower

icharus is phoning Iresa this morning as he is in exactly the same position as yourself. His switch has also been blocked for no apparent reason and he will probably provide an update on there if and when he manages to get someone at Iresa to actually answer the phone and provide him with a reason for them blocking his switch.

They seem to have received SOME of the gas ones but the electricity side of things is a mess - they have the opening redaing incorrectly above my current readings so reject my electricity readings - I have phots of the meter so they are wrong but as its impossible to talk to them I cannot get it resolved

So frustrating as I do not want to be there customer but they have trapped me!

I've requested a complaints number - no response

I've requested escalation - no response

Each to their own but I would encourage anyone not to go anywhere near this shower

Iresa has also blocked my switch with no explanation. I believe this to be in contravention of the licensing regulations and have sent an e-mail to Ofgem regarding this. They are not responding to my Complaint e-mail. Like you I am in limbo. There seems no way out with this company.

I intended to phone them this morning and wait in their usual hourly queue, however, my direct debit is due today, so I will wait until that is showing on my account and creating an even larger credit, then I will phone.

Please send an e-mail to Ofgem stating your belief that they are in contravention of their licensing conditions.

They seem to have received SOME of the gas ones but the electricity side of things is a mess - they have the opening redaing incorrectly above my current readings so reject my electricity readings - I have phots of the meter so they are wrong but as its impossible to talk to them I cannot get it resolved

So frustrating as I do not want to be there customer but they have trapped me!

I've requested a complaints number - no response

I've requested escalation - no response

Each to their own but I would encourage anyone not to go anywhere near this shower

My direct debit was taken yesterday but is not showing on my account as yet, so I have not joined the phone queue, for what will probably be a waste of time anyway.

It would appear that the only resolution we are going to get with this company is when it goes under and Ofgem has to take over and sort the mess out.

You think that you have consumer protection, but you actually don't when it comes to this type of company.

The complaints are continuing to mount up on this site, Trustpilot, and Facebook etc. They are serious complaints and the complainants are getting nowhere. E-mail complaints and phones are not being answered etc. Ofgem must have more than enough evidence by now, yet nothing appears to being done at that end.

I can only assume that eventually the SHTF and with the involvement of Ofgem we will have to extricate ourselves from the mess over time.

I misunderstood your last post - I thought you were suggesting you could not start a complaint because you were unable to contact the supplier, but I'm gald you have done so.

Can I ask how many weeks ago you started the complaint?
I can see you only started this thread about 4 weeks ago, and the first response then was to advise you to start a complaint.

Then later in this thread you didn't seem to know what the complaint procedure was. (post #11)
Presumably you have now informed yourself all about it and saw that the supplier actually has 8 weeks from start of the complaint to resolve it

can;t remember exact dates - I have all the emails but won't trwal back through them! Complaints procedure amounted to little more than adding complaints@iresa... to the email address i was contacting (which variously include info@iresa... readings@iresa customerservice@iresa enquiries:iresa etc. etc.

I have very clearly stated I want my issue to be regustered as a formal complaint, to be provided with a complaint number and also for my complaint to be escalated

It's not going to happen. My experience so far is that this supplier doesn't respond any differently to normal queries or complaints.

Edit: Out-of-interest, I thought that I would call to ask why my industry-validated closing gas meter reading isn't showing on my account. 'You are caller No 39' was the response. I will let it play out a little longer but I am not optimistic of an early resolution - even with The EO now involved in the revision of my bills (the few that I have).

Does anybody know how long it will take Iresa to validate meter readings or how they validate them?

I made the mistake of switching my electricity supplier 3 times in the space of a few months without giving our initial supplier (EON) a closing meter reading. So estimated readings, which are roughly 200 kwhs out, have been passed on down the line from EON through 2 other suppliers. I have the joy of unravelling this billing mess with a company who, we all know, are pretty useless...Iresa!

I have submitted accurate meter readings 4 times to Iresa since opening my account with them, hoping that they would validate those and correct everything down the line with my previous suppliers. However, despite submitting my first reading on the 28th April, none of my meter readings have been validated and my first bill (dated 11th June) doesn't display any meter reading information.

I called Iresa at about 12 today (to their credit they answered promptly) and they said that they will chase up the validation of my initial meter reading. Does anyone know how long this will take?

Does anybody know how long it will take Iresa to validate meter readings or how they validate them?

I made the mistake of switching my electricity supplier 3 times in the space of a few months without giving our initial supplier (EON) a closing meter reading. So estimated readings, which are roughly 200 kwhs out, have been passed on down the line from EON through 2 other suppliers. I have the joy of unravelling this billing mess with a company who, we all know, are pretty useless...Iresa!

I have submitted accurate meter readings 4 times to Iresa since opening my account with them, hoping that they would validate those and correct everything down the line with my previous suppliers. However, despite submitting my first reading on the 28th April, none of my meter readings have been validated and my first bill (dated 11th June) doesn't display any meter reading information.

I called Iresa at about 12 today (to their credit they answered promptly) and they said that they will chase up the validation of my initial meter reading. Does anyone know how long this will take?

We have been with Iresa since 6th April, and I think I can confirm your feelings that they're a shower... (Actually my mental picture of them is one bloke on his own in a council flat in Nottingham with one phone line and a laptop...)

They are the cheapest we could get, and one would think that as we have very little contact with our energy suppliers unless we're cut off or something, (and even then it's usually someone else's problem), there is little else but cost to base one's decision on.

But this company, Iresa, is really worth avoiding in my opinion.

We were with British Gas on Martin's collective fix for the previous twelve months, and everything went absolutely swimmingly. But within a couple of days of changing I found I needed to speak with Iresa about meter readings. I was on the telephone for over an hour before I got through to anyone, and it's not even a Freefone or local rate number they give you. It was 11p per minute; I very nearly spent all of what I was supposed to be saving by switching to them...

I submitted meter readings online after that, but for some unknown reason the electricity ones I submit are never 'validated'. They never tell me why, though.

Last week we received notice that our first bills were ready. The gas one showed us only having consumed gas for one week between 13th & 20th April, with a total gas charge for the period from April to June of just £7.63 + VAT. This was clearly preposterous. The electricity bill, on the other hand showed us as having consumed absolutely none at all...

When I raised this issue (by email; I'm never going to phone them again), the reply I received a week later was hardly comprehensive.

And I can confirm that their website DOES keep crashing. Several times over the last few weeks I have been unable to sign-in to my account. Indeed, as I'm typing this I am receiving error messages saying that their server is down for maintenance or over capacity.

I don't think we will be staying with them very much longer, despite the cheap tariffs.

I'm glad that my fix runs til next Feb. and that I only moved leccy to them.By the time I'm looking for the return of a credit balance either a) they will have ceased to trade or b) their systems will finally have been sorted.......but I wonder which is the more likely scenario?

Got an email over the weekend asking me to sign and return a letter along with supporting documents (all of which the ombudsman already has from when I first submitted my claim online)

The email asked me to login into the ombudsman portal to submit my info; eventually found the portal (no link in email) and have logged in (after clicking forgotten password that I never had in the first place)

Now I cannot for the life of me figure out how to submit documents or anything via the portal - any ideas?

NB: I'm aware I can email them but they do ask you to use the portal - all seems a bit haphazard.... plus I'm not sending them anything they don't already have.

Got an email over the weekend asking me to sign and return a letter along with supporting documents (all of which the ombudsman already has from when I first submitted my claim online)

The email asked me to login into the ombudsman portal to submit my info; eventually found the portal (no link in email) and have logged in (after clicking forgotten password that I never had in the first place)

Now I cannot for the life of me figure out how to submit documents or anything via the portal - any ideas?

NB: I'm aware I can email them but they do ask you to use the portal - all seems a bit haphazard.... plus I'm not sending them anything they don't already have.

After you have logged in to the Ombudsman portal click the 'Select' link below Cases. That opens your case details window and at the bottom is a choice between the 'Case' and 'Documents' icons which you need to click on to view either the Case or Documents to view them. Click on the Documents icon and that opens a list of any documents you have already submitted. At the top of that is a '+' icon with 'Upload"' at the side of it. Click that and go through the procedure to select the document/s you want to upload from your pc and finally upload your document/s to your case file.

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